The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council’s “Small Business Tax Index 2014” ranks the states from best to worst in terms of the costs of their tax systems on entrepreneurship and small business. This year’s edition of the Index pulls together 21 different tax measures, and combines those into one tax score that allows the 50 states to be compared and ranked.

The 21 measures are: 1) state’s top personal income tax rate, 2) state’s top individual capital gains tax rate, 3) state’s top tax rate on dividends and interest, 4) state’s top corporate income tax rate, 5) state’s top corporate capital gains tax rate, 6) any added income tax on S-Corporations, 7) whether or not the state imposes an alternative minimum tax on individuals, 8) whether or not the state imposes an alternative minimum tax on corporations, 9) whether or not the state’s personal income tax brackets are indexed for inflation, 10) the progressivity of the state’s personal income tax brackets, 11), the progressivity of the state’s corporate income tax brackets, 12) property taxes, 13) consumption-based taxes (i.e., sales, gross receipts and excise taxes), 14) whether or not the state imposes a death tax, 15) unemployment taxes, 16) whether or not the state has a tax limitation mechanism, 17) whether or not the state imposes an Internet access tax, 18) remote seller taxes, 19) gas tax, 20) diesel tax, and 21) wireless taxes.